Dreaming Spanish / compressible input

Has anyone invested a significant amount of time watching videos made by dreaming spanish or an equivalent comprehensible input channel and found it improved their language ability?

Definitely! I must have watched all of his intermediate and advanced videos and I found them very helpful before moving on to native content. I would definitely recommend his videos, especially the ones where he is interviewing/ talking to another native speaker.

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I’m trying to do an hour a day with his videos, currently I’m working with his intermediate. I’d say for the most part I can follow along, though every now and then there are parts I totally didn’t understand

Do you feel that you actually picked up working vocabulary from watching the videos? Did you track any of your hours watching via his website or did you only watch them via YouTube?

I see he recommends watching around 1500 hours of input to get to a really high level. I’d say I’m at a solid A2 level. Maybe pushing B1 but just lacking vocabulary. I’m was just looking for feedback before starting to commit to so much time. So far I’m only 10 hours in so really only scratching the service

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I honestly didn’t really track it as I’m not too worried about that, but I basically watched almost all the videos in his intermediate playlist and then the advanced playlist (besides some videos in which the topic didn’t really interest me).

I wouldn’t be too worried about whether you come away from his videos with new words in your head or not. Don’t get frustrated if you watch something and can’t think of a word you hadn’t heard before, the more you watch the more you’ll encounter the vocabulary in context and over time it’ll stick.

In so far as the 1500 hours of input, I would see Dreaming Spanish as a base level that will give you the foundation to move to native content. So not all of those 1500 hours should be from dreaming Spanish or other learning videos, you’ll want to move on to harder content once you have a good base. For example once you finish his videos (or before you finish them) you can look for native Spanish videos about topics you’re interested in.

I think the trick of learning through Youtube is to get to a point where you watch the videos because you like whats in them and you pick up the language as you go, hopefully soon you’ll have a good bunch of native Spanish youtubers that you follow and you will watch their videos for years to come regardless if you continue actively studying Spanish or not.

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I can’t say for Spanish but comprehensible input really worked for my French in the first couple months of my six month French listening challenge.

I moved my Spanish from zero to hero by watching Mexican Telenovelas. They are a pretty basic level of vocabulary and entertaining to watch to boot.

You’ll notice when you notice. And you will pick up vocabulary from watching videos.

I remember when I was watching Mexican telenovelas and it clicked what “que onda guey” meant after watching two big burly guys hug after meeting over and over.

I also remember it clicking “no me zangoloteas” when watching a character get shaken violently by an angry dude.

That said, watching videos is a slow way to pick up vocab. What I can say is after Spanish, French and now Russian for me personally watching videos solidifies vocabulary words that you have learned elsewhere (e.g. anki in my case) and helps you contextualize them so it’s easier to remember. e.g. I can remember que onda guey and zangalotear for more than ten years.

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I basically started from scratch with Dreaming Spanish. As of now, I have watched just over 110 hours of Dreaming Spanish. I watched the majority of the beginner and super beginner videos twice, and now I’m watching the intermediate videos. I started watching for small chunks of time back in October of last year. There is nothing else I ever do in Spanish, and I feel pretty good about the level of progress. I just wish this kind of content was available in Korean when I started :stuck_out_tongue: hahaha. I will add that, I don’t think he has enough beginner level videos to prepare you for his intermediate level content yet. I imagine that Pablo already knows this, and quite clearly is working a lot in order to get more videos out there. I’d recommend it! Also, his higher level videos seem great too. The conversations remind me of the Iyagi series for Korean, which is simply two people talking about more specific subjects for 5-10 minutes so that it is easier to follow.

Currently, it’s the only Spanish that I’m doing, but it’s mostly what I do if I have extra time and feel like doing something new. If I were only learning Spanish, I’d probably mix in some reading and maybe some language exchanges or something, but for now I’m happily making progress with Pablo & crew. It’s really good content for learners.

This is my main way of acquiring Spanish. I love it. Although Pablo, is very radical about input only for much more time than other CI teachers out there. He pushes not crossing input with your native language at all.

I’m wondering if that’s a fear overly pushed in the comprehensible input and immersion communities.

But I watch about 20-40 minutes of the videos a day and listen to the audio versions of them constantly.

One doesn’t have to get through all of the videos at a certain level. Just move up when you feel you can begin to be comfortable at that higher level.

I’m in intermediate and it’s taken me about 110 videos to become fully comfortable with this pace.

I also use LingQ as an alternative to anki for words and phrases and other podcasts and I read many audio books.

The $8 I pay a month for Dreaming Spanish is the best money I’ve ever spent to learn it!

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